Getting Around Waterloo Region By Bicycle

Old Ten Speed to Comfort Commuter

In about 1 hour yesterday I converted the handlebars on my old 10 speed to something a little more comfortable. It’s the first time I’ve swapped components on a working bike so I was a bit nervous about not having a bike to ride by the end!

Here’s what I was working with. My old Raleigh 10 speed from who knows what era. I had a shifter lever break off and I’ve been running it as a 5 speed.

Made in Canada Old Ten Speed

It’s been doing a great job all summer. The road tires mean a very efficient ride which I love. But the drop bars are starting to bug me and I got the itch to be a little more comfortable on my commute.

I tossed around the idea of a new hybrid bike, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to give up the road bike styling – I do like to go for fitness rides too and I wasn’t sure how a 50 – 100k would go on a hybrid. Instead, I decided mod the old 10 speed to make it more comfortable. I removed the drop bars and replaced them with a mountain bike flat bar that I had from another donor bike.

Road bike after bar modification

There was one hitch that had me running out to get parts though midway through the modification. The brake levers needed to be changed to mountain bike style levers.

The old and new levers

The bend causes the 10 speed lever to bottom out before any braking occurs. While I was at Canadian Tire, I also grabbed some more comfortable grips. I chose the Schwinn/SuperCycle components because I didn’t want to spend more on levers/grips than the original bike cost.

So, I’ve got my commuter and since I was already planning to lay down a few bucks for a new bike, I guess that means a new road bike for Rob.

I can understand that. I was always nervous about using drop bars for that reason until I was forced to do so last summer, when there was no other bike available. When the wind’s blowing, it’s sure nice to be able to lower yourself down!